Pakistan's madaaris sustain attention for their suspected contribution to militancy.
Some scholars reject this securitized discourse, arguing that it mobilizes/sustains various fictions
that madaaris: are schools last resort for the poor; provide little value; expanding in their usage;
and spawning international terrorists. I employ four new data-sources to inform debates between
those who understand seminaries from the optic of security and those who do not. I find:
madrasah use is neither expanding nor due to poverty; parents use them to complement other
forms of education, reflecting parental preferences for religious and secular educations; madaaris
provide educational benefit beyond public schools.